Nobody talks about this side of entrepreneurship... but I will.

I had the pleasure of speaking at the 'Women in the Black’ annual conference on June 12th in NYC produced by Harlem pioneer retail entrepreneur & founder of The Brownstone, Princess Jenkins. The theme of the event was Who’s the Boss: Rise & Thrive and focused on topics pertaining to women in entrepreneurship.

I appreciated the opportunity to introduce my ‘WHY’ for creating The Nitty Gritty With Nikoa as a space for entrepreneurs to amplify their stories of success and failure (or Pitfalls & Pivots as we say with The Nitty Gritty) and cultivate cross collaborative strategies to scale their businesses.

The message during my remarks was clear….

Forget what you see on social media that suggests entrepreneurial success is simply a matter of converting Likes and Views into sales. This path is hard and filled with Pitfalls and Pivots.

Being an entrepreneur will teach you more about yourself than just about anything else…what you’re really made of.

Your creativity. Your grind. Your vision. Your ability to bounce back from situations that would have broken most others.

It’ll also expose your insecurities, test your limits, and drag every last weakness to the surface.

But then, there are those moments…
When it all clicks.
When you see the impact.
When the risk pays off.

And in that moment, you feel unstoppable. Like you're doing exactly what you were built to do.

But here’s the truth they don’t glorify. It doesn’t always click.
Sometimes things crash.
And it’s at those moments, that the REAL test for an entrepreneur begins.

Because there’s one thing that connects every entrepreneur I’ve ever known, worked with, studied or advised….FAILURE.

Doesn’t matter the industry. Doesn’t matter if you're bootstrapping your first hustle or leading a multimillion-dollar empire.

EVERY entrepreneur has failed. The difference is how they define it, and how they respond to it.

I love this quote by Thomas Jefferson. He used this phrasing to reframe his MANY unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, emphasizing the learning process and not the setbacks. He didn't see his unsuccessful attempts as failures, but rather as valuable data points in his quest for the perfect light bulb. 

I agree with this philosophy completely. I don’t believe a failure = a loss. In fact, your biggest WIN can be a LOSS.

I define F.A.I.L. to mean:

Finding. Answers. In the. Lessons.

That’s why I created The Nitty Gritty with Nikoa…to REDEFINE what FAILURE and SUCCESS should mean to an entrepreneur (or anyone for that matter)

To build a space for the truth, NOT the highlight reel. To remind entrepreneurs that this “life” isn’t a job, full of failures and successes…it’s a lifestyle and a mindset filled with:

And a series of Pitfalls & Pivots that we navigate every day, every week, every month and every year.

But if you embrace the process, the Pitfalls won’t BREAK you, they’ll BUILD you. And when you feel like you’re failing, just remember these words….

You’re NOT failing. You’re Finding Answers in the Lessons. And if you're still standing at the end of it all…you're still in the game. And THAT is SUCCESS. Period.

So let’s get gritty and grow together.

Nikoa

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